Recipe: Lamb kofte, pineapple and halloumi kebab skewers

Alex and I have started to get a little more experimentive again in the kitchen, trying new combinations of foods, different ways of cooking things and Alex has even been eating more veggies – I bet this is a huge shock to those of you who know him well! But believe it 🙂 Although this particular recipe doesn’t have veggies you can always feel free to add and adjust to your liking.

We had decided on kebab skewers as this is something we hadn’t done before – In the winter they’re not the easiest thing to find in supermarkets as usually for BBQ season, but Robert Dyas came to the rescue!

Although I probably made them the fiddly way, they tasted fantastic and the combination of fruit, cheese and meat worked very well. The meat lamb kofte were tender and delicious, the spices really adding to the overall flavour. They also looked pretty cool served up.

So here’s the recipe (based on two, so double, half triple, whatever you need to do):

Ingredients:

For the sweet potato fries:

1 large sweet potato (They make more fries than you think!)

a teaspoon of sugar

cajun seasoning

a tiny bit of oil

For the kebabs:

Lamb mince – 250g

1 onion

Spices – we used cumin and mixed herbs

125g halloumi

a tin of pineapple rings or approx 200g of fresh pineapple

Method:

For the Sweet Potato Fries:

Preheat the oven to 200degrees/gas mark 6.

Peel and chop your large sweet potato into frie sized pieces.

Parboil your fries for 6-8minutes.

Drain, coat lightly in oil and place on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle with cajun seasoning and sugar (Yes I know I’m not normally an advocate of adding sugar to healthy food but this adds a delicious effect – just a treat now and again!).

Place in the oven. These will take about 30-45 minutes generally depending on your oven – remember to turn halfway through cooking and re-sprinkle with cajun seasoning. You can pop them at the bottom of the oven towards the end if they’ve cooked quicker than you thought – this should save them from burning.

For the kebabs:

In a mixing bowl, combine the lamb mince with chopped/grated onion and spices – we used cumin and paprika. But you can experiment. You could even split the meat in half and do different spices for each. Knead and mix well until it looks thoroughly combined – You won’t want lumps of onion or spice.

Take a handful of the meat mix, place on a clean board and roll into an oblong shape.The squares at each end of mine were roughly 3/4cm wide and high, the length of the oblong obviously depends how big your handful was.

Cut the meat oblong every 2-3cm. This makes a number of squares – the perfect size for kebabs (Don’t forget they will shrink when cooking).

Once you have cut all your meat mixture into squares for your kebabs, heat a little oil in a pan and place the kofte (meat squares) into the pan.

Brown all over before removing from the pan, leaving the extra fat behind, and placing in a lined roasting tin.

Cook on gas 6/200 degrees for roughly 20 minutes – You can cut them open to test the colour.

Whilst the koftes are in the over prepare your halloumi and pineapple. Cut into kebab sized portions. Approx 10 minutes before the koftes are due to come out of the oven place halloumi under the grill – grilling both sides until golden. The pineapple can be done under the grill too, although this shouldn’t take quite as long.

No comes the fiddly part – Take your kebab skewers and slide on your kofte, halloumi and pineapple – mix it up, create a pattern, whatever creativity takes over. You can always pop back under the grill to warm slightly.

Serve all together. And there you have it – Our little creation.

You can always switch the halloumi for another cheese which grills well, or the pineapple for butternut squash or peppers and onions. The options are endless and we will definitely be trying a different combo in the near future.